Claws
by Razor9350
Summary: Deep beneath the streets of Station Square, a predator has surfaced. What is it, exactly? And will it pose a threat to the community?
1. Death Beneath The Surface

Little is known of the origins of the monster. Some say it was born deformed and fled from its cruel upbringing. Others say it was the result of the Government's genetic testing gone awry. And others still insist that the monster is a perfectly natural organism, merely a predator from Sonic and friends' home planet. Regardless of its origin, of one thing all are universally sure: the monster cannot be allowed to roam freely in Station Square any longer.

Allow me to explain; seven years ago, engineers working in the sewers of Station Square reported seeing a reptilian creature of monstrous proportions. Allegedly, the beast was nearly as long as a human being is tall, and possessed an enormous tail tipped with a poisonous barb. According to the engineers, one of their crew had fallen into the sewer water by accident, and was ambushed by the monster. He fought bravely to reach the surface again, and managed to take in one last breath of air before being dragged to the bottom. Horrified by the scene, the engineers fled to surface level and brought their case to the local authorities. When they were brought down to the area where the one engineer had been attacked, the police managed to find a mangled corpse, apparently devoured by something very large. A search party was then set out to try and locate the beast that had done this, but to no avail. Whatever had eaten that unfortunate engineer was long gone... or so it seemed.

Six months after the incident, the story of the monster had become regarded as an urban legend, and often times related to the rumors of alligators populating the sewer system. Work was still being done in the sewers from time to time, but there was still no sign of any reptilian monster. It was at about this time when Knuckles' beloved Master Emerald had been shattered into several pieces, and he was desperate to retrieve them all. His search led him into the Station Square sewer system, where he began searching thoroughly for his prize.

"Where is it?" he said to himself as he poured through every nook and cranny, "Where's the shard?"

Finally Knuckles spotted something beneath the surface of the sewer water: something shiny, and potentially green. His heart lept as he dived beneath the surface and went to retrieve the shiny object, and to his relief it was indeed a shard of the Emerald. By now Knuckles could barely hold his breath any longer, and so he started for the surface. But suddenly, out of nowhere, a powerful force hit him from the side, the shock of which caused him to drop the shard. The water was dark and murky, and so Knuckles could hardly see what was attacking him. But whatever it was, he could feel its might as the creature bit down into his torso. Instinctively, Knuckles hit the monster as best he could, but it didn't seem to help much. Its skin was tough, almost as though it was armored. Time was running out, and Knuckles was losing consciousness. If he didn't free himself fast enough, either the creature would devour him or he would die from suffocation. Swinging desperately, Knuckles finally managed to hit something soft - the monster's eye. The impact caused the monster to let go of its grip on Knuckles, and he immediately rushed to the surface to breathe. He then dove back under to retrieve the Emerald shard, but moved more quickly than before, so as to evade the monster before it recovered from its wound. After regaining the shard, Knuckles climbed back out of the sewer and into the streets above, where he collapsed. The monster's bite had caused him to lose a great deal of blood, and he could bear the strain no more. Slowly, the world around him began to fade to black, as the ever-so-slight sound of a siren could be heard nearly a mile away...


	2. Bad Dreams and Research

The surrounding water was murky as usual, but the faint hints of motion meant that there would be enough food to survive on for today. Swimming through the sewers, the monster caught sight of a rat struggling in the water. Perhaps it was injured? Grasping the opportunity, the creature sped towards the rat and devoured it quickly. The surrounding animals, frightened by the sight of the awful creature, fled the scene and sought a safer place in the sewer. Fat chance that they would be safe for long - it knew where to find them. Every passageway, every hole, every nook and cranny, it knew everything about the sewer system and its complex layout. But fortunately for the resident animals, the creature's hunger was sated for now, and so it surfaced and disappeared into its lair. As it lay resting, the monster reflected on that odd creature that had invaded its home the other night. The taste of its flesh was different than all the other creatures it had consumed in its life; it was strong and very healthy. It would have been a treat to have finished its prey, if it hadn't fought back. Its eye had since recovered, but its bloodlust had not. Sooner or later, it would find this animal... and it would finish the meal. But not right now, however; it needed to rest up, and make sure that it was ready to start hunting again. As it closed its eyes and slept, the creature dreamed of... something... it wasn't immediately sure of what the images were. In the dream, the creature found itself in a glass container, in a white room with several other glass containers that all held some kind of animal inside of them. Then, the creature found itself suspended in the air, being taken... someplace... it wasn't sure where. Then there was a splash of water, and the dream ended. As the monster woke up, it reflected on the dream's images; this wasn't the first time it had dreamed of these things. But what did they mean? Crawling out of its dark lair, the beast reasoned that it should focus on the images some other time.

For now, it had prey to hunt.

Knuckles woke up in a hospital bed, with a sharp pain nagging at his chest. Looking down, he saw that the monster's bite had been stitched up and was no longer bleeding. Feeling much better than he had last night, Knuckles said his thanks to the hospital staff and went on his way. Once outside of the hospital building, Knuckles reflected on the horrors of the night before; what was that monster in the sewers? Did anyone else know about it? Seeking answers, he decided to investigate and see what he could learn about the beast, if anything at all. Naturally he started with the local engineers that worked on sewer maintanence... and it was through them that he heard the tale of the unfortunate engineer. Upon learning this story, Knuckles then made a trip to the nearest library, where he searched the internet for any further information. Though mounds and mounds of online news articles, Knuckles finally discovered an alleged photograph of the beast, which had been disregarded as a hoax. But he wasn't so sure; it looked very real to him.

The creature in the photograph had a long, shell-like head, with two green eyes at the front (which looked somewhat like Knuckles' own eyes). The pupils were slit, and had visible veinage that looked dark green against the lighter green of the eyes. The rest of its head was black and covered in what looked like naturally armored scales - just like the animal that ambushed him! Not much else of the creature was visible, as it was submerged beneath the sewer water. But behind it, the top scales of a long and powerful tail could be plainly seen. There was no mistaking it - this was the predator that had ambushed Knuckles the night before.

"Okay...", he thought to himself, "Now I know what the sucker looks like... kind of... but now I've got to track it down and face it. Can't risk letting it hurt anyone else."

Of course, Knuckles knew this would be no easy task. This thing was a powerhouse, and possibly twice his size. His best bet would be to draw it out of the water and onto dry land... but could he manage to outsmart the beast before it consumed him?


	3. The Battle

Night fell over the city sky, and Knuckles had braced himself for the coming encounter. Last time, the creature had the element of surprise at its advantage; Knuckles hadn't prepared himself to fight underwater, or to have to deal with its armored hide. But this time he knew much of what to expect, and what to prepare for; to counter the monster's thick armor, Knuckles forged his shovel claws into tough blades designed to compliment his natural claws. He also prepared bait, to lure it out of the water: fresh, bloody fish. Surely such a rich, sweet scent would attract the attention of the eager predator. Gathering his wares and taking one final moment to ready himself for battle, Knuckles descended into the sewers to confront his adversary...

The sewers were dark and dirty as usual, with rats scurrying about and insects creeping above. The scent of the water was very, very strong, and from time to time Knuckles could have sworn he saw bones beneath the surface. And with such a beast living beneath the water, he just might have. Deciding that he had found a favorable spot to place his trap, Knuckles attached his bait to a tough cord, the other end of which he tied to a step on the nearest ladder leading up to street level. And now, all he could do was sit and wait for the creature to take the bait...

Suddenly, as Knuckles began to grow weary of waiting, a powerful force pulled at the bait. Something large thrashed about in the water, trying to pull away the fresh meat from the rope. This was his chance! Without hesitating, Knuckles attempted to pull the creature out of the water - the struggle left Knuckles relying on every ounce of strength that he had, for the beast was nearly as heavy as he was mighty! Again Knuckles violently pulled on the rope - the creature was getting closer- closer- now Knuckles could see its gruesome face clearly. It was indeed the same beast that he had seen in the photograph; large green eyes with slit pupils, and black scales covering its face and body. But now he could see further details that weren't in the picture; in place of a fleshy muzzle, the beast's jaws were covered in the same black armor that coated the rest of its body. The jaws themselves were built much differently than Knuckles' own; they looked more structural, more solid, and were a lot bigger. The teeth, too, were abnormal; every last tooth in the monster's mouth was large and sharp, though also relatively thin. The most notable teeth were the fangs on both jaws, which stood where the canine teeth should have been. Now Knuckles had nearly drawn the monster out of its natural element, but it wasn't about to give in just yet - recognizing its attacker, the creature lunged at Knuckles and pinned him to the ground, its tail poised and ready to impale his skull with its enormous barb. Thinking quickly, Knuckles grabbed the creature and threw his body backwards, taking his attacker with him. And in mid-leap, he threw the creature into a much dryer sewer tunnel, where he could now get a good look at the rest of its body; there were large curved scales running down its back and tail, raised and looking almost like enormous spines. The creature's body was about three and a half feet long, and its tail was about four feet long. Its hands weren't covered in gloves, like all the other anthropomorphic life forms such as Knuckles and Sonic; instead they were bare, with enormous bony claws at the ends of each finger. The feet were very much the same, lacking shoes and instead appearing more primal. The beast turned angrily to face Knuckles, who quickly took a deep breath and charged headlong into the tunnel to face the monster. It roared angrily and charged at him as well, and the two finally clashed in face-to-face combat.

The creature attempted the first strike, but Knuckles countered with his metal claws. His blow successfully wounded the beast, which reeled back in surprise. It observed its wound, wondering how something could so easily hurt its body - when suddenly Knuckles, wasting no time, rushed in and delivered three powerful blows to its face. Now the beast was both frightened and infuriated, and so it struck back by slashing Knuckles' torso. The wounds that Knuckles had received from their first encounter hadn't entirely recovered yet, therefore the creature's sudden strike caused Knuckles a great deal of pain. He fell onto his back, and the monster took this advantage and flung its tail straight at him - fortunately Knuckles moved out of the way of the barb, and rushed in to attack its chest and gut. Now the creature was knocked back, but only for a moment. It recovered quickly from the shock of the wounds, and lashed its tail again at Knuckles - except this time, it used its whole tail as a weapon, rather than just the tip. The attack worked, brutally scarring Knuckles' face. Now he was down, and looking too shocked to retaliate. Feeling victorious, the beast lunged forward to deliver the finishing blow, when Knuckles - summoning all the strength he had left - delivered a devastating uppercut to the creature's jaw. It flipped backwards from the force of the attack, and landed on its armored head - causing the concrete beneath it to crack. Knuckles struggled to get back onto his feet, but found that he could not fight any longer. With that last blow, he had exhausted himself of all fighting energy that he could muster. Panicked, he got on his hands and knees and prepared for the creature's vicious onslaught... but it never came. Glancing at the spot where the creature had fallen, he saw that it lay still. Slowly and cautiously inching forward, he saw that its eyelids were shut, and could hear it breathing in a relaxed manner. Knuckles could hardly believe it - he had defeated the monster.


	4. Questions and Answers

It opened its eyes slowly, wearily observing its surroundings... the first thing it noticed was the bright light, which immediately hurt the sewer-dweller's eyes. After a few moments, it came to realize that the surrounding walls were all white, save for one - a transparent space. And through that space, it could see... people... not unlike the people it had met in the sewers, but also different. These people wore long white coats, and were very busy working with various items such as small animals. A few of these humans couldn't help but look at it - two, in particular, stood uncomfortably close. This annoyed the creature. Lunging suddenly from its long slumber, the predator shocked those two stupid humans that came too close - only to realize that it could not reach them. Something invisible was in the way. Maybe the creature just miscalculated the jumping space? It tried through the transparent space two more times, but to no avail. And as the beast fully came to its senses, it came to a startling realization:

It had been captured. And in addition, it vaguely recognized its human captors.

"Well? What is it?" Knuckles asked a scientist that had examined the beast.

"It seems to be an unnatural organism," the scientist responded, "A mutant, or perhaps a result of genetic testing."

Knuckles wasn't satisfied with such a simple answer. "Any idea where it came from?"

"Well we do have one theory," the scientist said, "But it's so far unconfirmed."

"Well? What is it?" Knuckles asked.

"You see," the scientist began, "about three years ago there was a man who worked in a lab branch of ours just downtown, named Adrian Drake. He specialized in cross-species genetics and selective breeding. Among his numerous experiments, one in particular held special interest to him."

"Which one?" Knuckles asked, "What was it?"

"It was a reptile-like creature," the scientist continued, "but it was unlike any reptilian species that we know of. It could thrive underwater almost like an amphibian, but its bodily structure more closely resembled a lizard. Its diet consisted exclusively of flesh - its body could not digest herbs and vegetables as easily as it could digest meat - and the strangest part was that it..." the scientist paused, "it was _warm-blooded_."

Knuckles' eyes widened as the description of this creature progressively matched the monstrous predator that he had encountered. And not only that, but there was more to it than he had initially thought.

"So this thing... it could be that mutant of his?" he asked.

"It's a possibility," the scientist responded, "but we can't jump to conclusions. Besides, Adrian Drake said that he personally discarded his experiments when our labortory could no longer afford to fund his research. We were working with medicine at the same time, you see, and so we had to devote more effort in that department as opposed to animal experiments."

Knuckles was now at least given enough information to regard his efforts as valuable. He thanked the scientist for her help, and made his way out of the facility - but not before looking over his adversary one last time before he left. It met his gaze with a deathly glare, recognizing its enemy with every ounce of hatred that it could summon. It wanted to kill him, to feel its claws and teeth sinking deeply into his flesh as it tore open his body and feasted on his flesh... but it could not do that yet. It had to wait for a chance to escape this imprisonment. Thinking of this possibility, Knuckles turned to a security guard on his way out.

"Hey, is there any chance that this thing can get out of here?"

The security guard chuckled. "Not a chance," he said, "that door is locked electronically. It can't break out."

As Knuckles walked through the sprawling city, he felt a few drops of water fall on his head. Looking up, he noticed some particularly dark storm clouds looming overhead.

"There's a mighty big storm comin'," a local food vender remarked, "Could knock out our city's power for a little while. I'm bettin' on it!"


End file.
